New TV Series

Everyday Health has a new TV series that profiles ordinary people who overcome extraordinary obstacles and who are helping others lead healthier, happier lives. This upcoming series (Saturday October 29th) on ABC local stations - features a young woman staging a "Pink Out", an event to raise money for the Young Women's Breast Cancer Awareness Foundation. Don't Miss this one!!!http://everydayhealth.com/tv/episode-guide.aspxCheck out their website too for other information.

By: CARLA K. JOHNSON
Associated Press09/01/10 4:45 AM PDT

CHICAGO
— Surgery to remove healthy ovaries gives a triple benefit to high-risk
women: It lowers their threat of breast and ovarian cancer, and boosts
their chances of living longer, new research suggests.

The study
is the largest to date to find advantages for preventive surgery for
women who carry BRCA gene mutations. Women with the faulty genes have a
dramatically higher cancer risk than other women — five times greater
for breast cancer and at least 10 times greater for ovarian cancer.

The
study, appearing in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical
Association, found benefits for women with two different BRCA gene
variants whether they had previously had breast cancer or not.

The
results offer more tailored evidence for women considering ovary
removal, a surgery that ends fertility, fast-forwards them into early
menopause and may contribute to osteoporosis or heart problems later in
life.

"It's really critical to have the best information when
making such a profound decision," said senior author Timothy Rebbeck of
the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

The
researchers followed nearly 2,500 women with BRCA mutations in Austria,
England, the Netherlands and the United States. All the women were
cancer-free at the start. They were watched for an average of four
years. Most of the women were younger than 50 at the start of the study.

They got counseling to help them choose between surgery or increased screening to watch for cancers early.

Ten
percent of the women chose mastectomy and 40 percent chose to have
their ovaries removed; some had both. More than half the women had
neither surgery.

The women who chose ovary removal had impressive results:

_1
percent were later diagnosed with ovarian cancer that showed up in
cells missed by surgeons, compared to 6 percent of the women who kept
their ovaries.

_11 percent were diagnosed with breast cancer, compared to 19 percent of the women who kept their ovaries.

_3 percent of those who had surgery died, compared to 10 percent of the others.

The
study also found preventive mastectomy lowered the risk of breast
cancer. No breast cancers were seen in the women who had their breasts
removed. That may seem unsurprising, but mastectomy can leave behind
breast tissue that can turn cancerous.

The study was
observational, meaning it can't prove one choice was better than
another. Other factors could have caused differences in the women's
cancer rates.

But the results will help doctors counsel their
patients, said Dr. Virginia Kaklamani of Northwestern University's
Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, who wrote an accompanying
editorial in the journal.

"I'll use it mostly in talking to
people considering genetic testing," Kaklamani said. "I can tell them,
'If we know you test positive, there are things to do that will help
you live longer.'"

The increased risk for BRCA carriers is
frightening. In the general population, about 12 in 100 women will get
breast cancer during their lifetimes, compared to about 60 in 100 women
who have faulty BRCA genes, according to the National Cancer Institute.
For ovarian cancer, the lifetime risk in the general population is a
little more than 1 in 100 compared to 15-to-40 in 100 women with BRCA
mutations.

For women with a family history of breast or ovarian
cancer, the decision to get tested can be agonizing. The $3,300 blood
test, while often covered by insurance, can disrupt families, force
decisions on childbearing and leave a woman feeling stigmatized.
Surgery costs thousands of dollars, not including lost time at work.
Without preventive surgery, a woman faces a regimen of mammograms, MRIs
and blood tests to look for cancer.

But several signs point to
"the beginning of a new era" for high-risk women, said Joanna Rudnick,
a 36-year-old Los Angeles filmmaker. She has known for nine years that
she carries a breast cancer gene mutation. Engaged and planning to have
children, she's also planning to have her breasts and ovaries removed
when she's 40. Her documentary "In the Family" tells about her choices
and those faced by other "BRCA-positive" women.

With testing more
than a decade old, researchers are just beginning to have better data
to understand the benefits of risk-reducing surgery. For high-risk
women, equally important are the breakthroughs in cosmetic breast
reconstruction, laws to prevent genetic discrimination and evolving
attitudes toward removing body parts to avoid cancer, Rudnick said. A
federal judge recently struck down patents on the two genes held by
Myriad Genetics Inc., which may widen research possibilities and
testing options.

Rudnick's glad to hear ovary removal may reduce her risk of breast cancer as well as ovarian cancer.

"This is one of the rare silver linings that has been learned from these prospective studies," Rudnick said.